2023 Cowboys Preseason Week 1 Gameday Chatter Thread | Jaguars @ Cowboys | 08/12/2023

[Chocolate Lab]

I feel like it's lost in the shuffle a little but I like what I saw from Overshown.

For sure. He jumped off the screen maybe more than anyone on the team last night.

 

[Simpleton]

I feel like it's lost in the shuffle a little but I like what I saw from Overshown.

Both him and Clark, that was one of my biggest concerns for the defense in terms of what happens if something happens to LVE again. I'm not completely sold of course but yesterday was promising.

 

[Cotton]

I feel like it's lost in the shuffle a little but I like what I saw from Overshown.

He is sideline to sideline. I likey a lot.

 

[Foobio]

Farniok was absolutely blasted on a bull rush in the first half. I don’t see him grading out that high

 

[boozeman]

 

[Genghis Khan]

Farniok was absolutely blasted on a bull rush in the first half. I don’t see him grading out that high

The OL didn't play well for most of the night and yet they have two on there.

I usually flush PFF's nonsense but I'm flushing and jiggling the handle on this one.

 

[boozeman]

Series #5

1 - Gets squared up on reserve OT Josh Wells and then engaged by Hodges. Hodges rides him to the ground. Bigsby tears off a 34 yard gain.

2 - Plays around with RG Chandler Brewer. Bigsby runs off his hip.

3 - Doubled up by Wells and Hodges. No movement.

4 - Gets singled by Hodges and wins.

5 - Hodges long arms him and holds him.

6 - Single blocked by Brewer on the RPO TD.

7 - Gets out of his stance badly and gets snatched to the ground by Hodges.

Series #6

1 - Stalemated with Brewer.

2 - Hand fought with both Williams and Brewer without getting upfield.

3 - Fights off Brewer and throws him and makes the play.

4 - Gets pushed backwards and pinched off the LOS by the two guards and center.

5 - Doubled by Wells and Brewer, held his ground to clog up the run.

 

[Foobio]

Boozemun on a rampage

 

[bbgun]

Booze watching Mazi from now on

 

[Foobio]

Cowboys vs Jaguars takeaways || Deuce Vaughn, Jake Ferguson, Mazi Smith, Jalen Tolbert notes

A few quick takeaways from Cowboys vs Jaguars yesterday including- I don't need to see anything else from Deuce Vaughn. That's an NFL player, and not just a...

www.youtube.com

Mazi review begins at 5:00

 

[boozeman]

Series #7

1 - Gets washed out in the middle of the field by Williams with late help.

2 - Cleared out by Williams with more late help.

3 - Brewer handles him as he loses track of the football.

4 - Tries rush inside and gets doubled.

5 - Excellent pocket push on Brewer who needed Williams to keep him off Rourke.

6 - Williams slides down and grabs him by the waist.

7 - Pushes Brewer back and disrupts the play.

8 - Handfight with Brewer again, does not push.

 

[p1_]

 

[shoop]

If we could trust him as the #3 I would trade Gallup for a decent quality lineman.

 

[boozeman]

@boozeman @Simpleton or anyone else... Have you guys checked that second half OL? Just starting to watch but I want a look at Bass and and Bostick (and Richards earlier).

I sort of like Bostick. He's not perfect but he's athletic and able to get his feet in position. Maybe needs to be in better condition.

My Fubo is terrible for FF and Rewind, though. Very slow and tedious.

Bass did most things right. Bostick is not pretty but he has promise.

 

[boozeman]

Every snap that Deuce Vaughn played he either touched the ball or went out into a pattern.

 

[Simpleton]

A lot of what I saw was him not being very mature in terms of his processing or technique so he'd let guys get into him, or not be fully aware of where the blocks were coming from, get off balance but then he'd often take a beat to reset and then fight free. It didn't look great because he was initially uprooted about a yard or so, but the ability to reset and split the double/combo or cause a pileup is an example of his strength shining through.

Again, it's all subtle and not especially eye catching, but that's often the case with 2-gapping run stuffers. The pass rush stuff, beyond a bull, is likely something that will have to develop over a year or two.

 

[boozeman]

Watching the all-22 of Mazi right now and I don't get where the extreme consternation is coming from. Like yea, he didn't look great on some snaps and certainly didn't dominate but he wasn't so outlandishly bad that I'd be losing my mind for a first preseason game.

He played 32 snaps, 15 were passes, 17 runs, which went for a total of 121 yards although 80 of those came on two runs that were bounced all the way to the outside/C gap and had absolutely nothing to do with Mazi even if he wasn't amazing himself on his individual reps (he lost one of them to a combo/double team and won the other on a single block).

So aside from that you're at 41 yards on 15 rushes and he actually looked good on several of those reps.

Similar to Tyler early on last year the issue when he loses is that he isn't playing with technique, namely his pad level rises immediately and he's not timing his hands properly and using his length to his advantage. That nullifies his strength and results in him letting guys get into his chest and losing leverage, which he can recover against on a single block, but when that happens against a double/combo he loses balance and gets rooted out.

He was doubled on almost half the snaps he played (14) and by my very subjective count, he won 8 reps, lost 6 and was neutral on 16, neutral being that it was more or less a stalemate or a play design where he wasn't in a position to make an impact, i.e. a bootleg rollout to the opposite side or a play where he's cut at the knees immediately on a ball that's out in under 2 seconds.

He mainly struggled against doubles/combos, although he also flashed against them too (2nd quarter - 14:10, 8:22, 5:53, 4:03). Of course he didn't show much as a pass rusher aside from a bit of a bull rush here and there, but that's to be expected in his first preseason game given how raw he is there.

All in all, an uneven performance but it's a rookie's first preseason game and he flashed a bit here and there, which is about all you can expect at this point. The problem is that the flashes are subtle for a player like this, like if he's muddying up the spacing of a run play and helping stuff things up to a 2 yard gain instead of 4, that's exactly what you want but it's not something that pops off the screen or is especially satisfying to watch.

Anybody expecting him to be a dominant, or even good pass-rusher at this point is just setting themselves up for disappointment, he's a project in that regard although a high-ceiling one.

Yes, he was doubled a lot, however you must have a different definition of "win".

He had a couple of plays, but all in all, I expected more, especially for how much he played.

I did not expect him to either draw or lose often to the likes of Darryl Williams, Blake Hance, Chandler Brewer, Josh Wells and Cooper Hodges. If you take into account that talent sustained the same results as the starters like Schreff, Walker Little and Luke Fortner did early in the game.

I am not in full blown panic mode and when he is in there with Parsons, Lawrence and Hankins, his role could be different. That stated, at the very least I expect him to step change improve against Seattle.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Every snap that Deuce Vaughn played he either touched the ball or went out into a pattern.

That's a little disconcerting. They should probably have him practicing pass protection. Hopefully it was just a coincidence and not by design to try and avoid it with him. He can't be any worse than Davis was at it.

Also, I'd have liked a designed screen or two with him. Maybe they don't want to show it.

 

[boozeman]

Someone needs to explain how they ranked Farniok highly and ignored Bass.

 

[boozeman]

That's a little disconcerting. They should probably have him practicing pass protection. Hopefully it was just a coincidence and not by design to try and avoid it with him. He can't be any worse than Davis was at it.

Also, I'd have liked a designed screen or two with him. Maybe they don't want to show it.

They kept Luepke in and he blocked out of the same formations.